


By the Shadows of Dusk

by HarkaSun



Series: 5 Months of Shadowhunters Challenge [8]
Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: Alec Lightwood Has Anxiety, Alec Lightwood Loves Magnus Bane, Alec Lightwood Provides Comfort, Domestic Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood, Episode: s02e10 By the Light of Dawn, Fluff without Plot, Hope, M/M, Magnus Bane Is Quite Magical, Post-Episode: s02e10 By The Light Of Dawn, Romantic Fluff, Sunsets, They're just cute and in love
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-24
Updated: 2020-06-24
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:14:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,714
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24862144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/HarkaSun/pseuds/HarkaSun
Summary: Magnus wakes the night after Valentine's massacre, knowing Alec had brought him back to his loft, but assuming he returned to the Institute after their talk. He gets a surprise, however, when he hears someone in the apartment.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Series: 5 Months of Shadowhunters Challenge [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1696138
Comments: 6
Kudos: 166





	By the Shadows of Dusk

**Author's Note:**

> For @permetstu and @izzymalec's 5 Months of Shadowhunters Challenge on Tumblr
> 
> Week 12: Favourite Episode  
> ↳ By the Light of Dawn (Season 2, Episode 10)

A sound from outside the room startles Magnus upright.

A gasp catches halfway out of his mouth as he wakes, lifting a hand to hold his neck as the air hits raw and painful in the back of his throat. It takes him a minute to realise where he is, what had happened before he had returned to his apartment and fallen asleep. Memories of the institute fill his mind, of finding Madzie and taking her to Catarina’s, of returning to the scene of a massacre and being unable to find Alec.

It had been awful and terrifying, but, after all that ordeal, Alec had told him he loved him. It was incredible, if not slightly overwhelming. Magnus hadn’t heard those three little words for a very long time.

Now, the room is empty aside from himself, which isn’t unnatural by any means. It is the sound from outside that is strange. His loft is not a place that can be broken into easily. His warding doesn’t permit access to just anyone. Maybe it is just because of the events that transpired the night before, but paranoia is quickly setting in.

Magnus eases himself out of bed, snapping the magic to his hands as he steps lightly towards the door. There is another clatter from out in the loft. Frowning, Magnus tries to figure out how they could get past his wards. It is something he will have to question once he has them contained.

He is just glad Alec returned to the Institute and is out of danger.

Footsteps alert him to the person moving, echoing closer and closer and he wrenches the door aside, casting a hand out to flare the magic to his fingertips, prepared to challenge the intruder, to send his power to bind them.

Alec startles violently, almost spilling the contents of the mug he held, cradling it anxiously with his free hand. “By the Angel, Magnus,” he chides, eyes scanning the floor to ensure it hadn’t spilt before glancing back to his boyfriend.

Magnus immediately lowers his hand, banishing the magic in the process. “I’m sorry, I didn’t...” He shakes his head, swallows hard at the realisation that he might have hurt the shadowhunter had he not managed to control himself. “I heard someone in the apartment. I didn’t know you’d still be here.”

They had returned to the apartment together after their ordeal at the institute. Shadowhunters had died too. They talked for hours about those who had been lost. Magnus supposes he had fallen asleep. He had assumed that Alec must have gone back to the Institute by now.

It is just now dawning on him that—since he fell asleep on the sofa—Alec must have carried him to bed like a child. Embarrassment flushes his cheeks and he ducks his head a little in attempt to hide it, a hand lifting to rub the back of his neck.

Alec looks at him strangely, but doesn’t comment on his sudden coyness. “Of course I’m still here... What, you think I’d leave you after everything that happened?”

“Well, yes, I suppose that’s exactly what I thought.”

Alec blinks, narrows his eyes. “Magnus, people died. People you knew. I know there weren’t any warlocks there, but still... they were downworlders. They were your people.”

Magnus works his jaw briefly, casting his gaze away from Alec’s own. He doesn’t want to think about them, about the wolves and vampires and seelies who died trying to prevent Valentine from accomplishing his mission with the soul sword. He has enough loss to weigh his heart.

“You don’t have to talk about it,” says Alec, still so gentle. “It’s probably not something you want to dwell on… You’ve been sleeping for a few hours; for most of the afternoon really.” He pauses a moment, lifts the mug half-heartedly. “I made you some tea. You don’t have to drink it.”

Magnus ducks his gaze, takes the mug in both hands. “Thank you, Alexander,” he utters, glancing back up to him. “I appreciate you being here.”

Alec cants his head softly. “Then why does it feel like you want me to leave?”

Magnus huffs, halfway to amusement. It doesn’t hit right, however. There isn’t a trace of mirth in the exhaled breath. “Alec, I’m not... I’m not used to people staying. I’m just waiting for the day that you... that you decide I’m too difficult to love.”

“Hey,” Alec says, comes forward to set a hand to the small of Magnus’s back. “I said I loved you and I meant it.”

Magnus regards him a moment, ponders this strange, wonderful man in front of him. The simple fact that he had stayed when Magnus expected him to leave is almost overwhelming.

The tea is an unexpected bonus too. Magnus takes an experimental sip, although the aroma is enough for him to know it is caramel. Alec can’t have known that this is Magnus’s idea of pure comfort after a difficult day. He must have told Alec once and forgotten about it.

“Magnus…”

“Thank you,” says Magnus again, realising he has been quiet for too long, “for the tea… but you are under no obligation to be here. I’m sure you have things to be getting on with back at the institute.”

Alec frowns at him, but Magnus is moving now, taking alternating sips of his tea. He moves to the apothecary, sets his mug down on the table so his hands are free to check his journal. He skims through his appointments, disappointed to see he has nothing for weeks.

“Magnus,” Alec says and Magnus glances to see the shadowhunter stood in the doorway. “If you want me to leave, please just ask me. Don’t shut me out without an explanation.”

Magnus shakes his head. “I don’t want you to leave,” he says, allowing himself vulnerability, just for a moment. “I just don’t want you to feel like you need to stay… I’ll be fine on my own. I’ve been fine before.”

Alec presses his lips tight together in thought. He turns his head, warm, orange light hitting his eyes and making them glow. “Sun’s going down,” he says in a quiet observation, his attention coming back to the warlock. “I want to stay, if you’ll have me. You don’t have to be alone anymore…” He pauses a moment, perhaps considering if that was too intimate. “Will you watch the sunset with me?”

Magnus’s eyes narrow and he nods, once and shortly.

Alec leads him out onto the balcony, holds the glass door open for him. Together, they lean against the wall of the balcony, overlooking the city and the bridge and the water that shines like fire under the orange sun. Magnus absently drinks his tea.

They watch as the sun slowly sinks towards the horizon; basking in a comfortable silence as they wait for dusk to fall.

Magnus thinks about how Alec stayed. Without even thinking, the shadowhunter had stayed to watch over him, to make him tea and watch the sunset. It is love in its purest and simplest form. Sometimes Magnus feels cheated by life—by his immortal curse—but he is grateful for it now. All that time, he was heading for this; he just didn’t know it.

Alec is staring at the horizon, a strange look in his eyes. He seems low; sad. It is understandable. He lost many of his fellow shadowhunters in that fight; that fight that Madzie chose to spare him from. Magnus knows he is susceptible to survivor’s guilt. It is simply in his nature.

“Do you ever worry that the sun won’t come back up after it sets at night?”

Magnus blinks through sipping his tea, a soft pinch to his brow as he swallows and places his mug down on the wall of the balcony. “No,” he says gently. “I’ve found it’s one of the only constants in life. The sun may set, but it always rises again… It always comes back.”

Alec looks to him, his eyes soft. The setting sun casts shadows over his face, dark and dramatic, and Magnus thinks to himself that the shadowhunter has never looked more beautiful. Alec might be anxious and self-critical and sometimes a little sad, but he is so much more than a few clouds over his mind.

The relief from him when they had embraced outside the Institute in the aftermath of Valentine’s massacre was enough to show Magnus his truest colours. Alec is protective and honest and his heart is so filled with kindness, such a capacity for love.

“Kiss me,” requests Magnus, turning to him. “Let me show you the sunrise.”

Alec frowns. “I don’t understand.”

“You will.”

Alec drops his hands to Magnus’s waist, a focused furrow to his brow as he pulls the warlock in for a soft, but open-mouthed kiss. Magnus puts his arms around the back of Alec’s neck and reaches out with his magic, allows, for a moment, their minds to join as one.

Hundreds of thousands of sunrises bloom behind closed eyes, skies of pink and orange and purple and blue, the soft pastels of dawn brightened with the scattering rays of the sun. Magnus shows him the dawns of his life, the greatest sunrises of all his days on this earth. _It always comes_ , Magnus thinks fiercely, desperate to soothe Alec’s worrisome mind. _The dawn always comes_.

The light fades as they break apart, still close enough for Magnus to press their foreheads together.

“Magnus,” Alec breathes out his name and the warlock looks to see his eyes are still closed.

“The sun will always come up,” says Magnus, reaches to hold and squeeze Alec’s hands. “I promise you, Alexander… You may have to wait a while every now and then, but the sun will always rise eventually. It is the only true thing in this world.”

Alec shakes his head, his eyes opening. “No,” he says, swallows hard. “Not the only thing…”

A soft smile takes Magnus’s lips and he lifts his head to meet Alec’s kiss, deeper now than before. The final trace of the sun sinks below the horizon and the sky falls to dusk.

The sun will return, however, and with it will come the light of dawn.


End file.
